Background/Purpose Organization identity has been shown to positively impact such outcomes as commitment (Carmelli, Gillat, & Weisberg, 2006) and perceived external prestige (e.g. Carmelli et al., 2006), has impacted behavior of alumni and non-alumni towards universities in both their academic funds (Mael & Ashforth, 1992) and athletic funds (Stinson & Howard, 2007). Similarly, perceptions of athletics success have been connected with overall prestige (Goidel & Hamilton, 2006). However, while numerous studies have explored the role of athletics and its impact upon image perceptions of stakeholders at college sport's highest level, much less research has examined this phenomenon at the NCAA Division II and III levels.
Method Students (N = 3,000) from institutions from all NCAA divisions (I, II, III) were assessed along constructs of perceived external prestige (Carmelli et al., 2006), team identity, (Wann & Branscombe, 1993), construed external image (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992), and university identity (Mael & Ashforth, 1992).
Analysis/Results A MANCOVA showed a significant multivariate interaction between team identity and level of athletics (Wilk's Lambda = .98, p<.05), with follow-up tests indicating the interaction connected only to the students' perceptions of external prestige (F[4, 1078] = 2.59, p <.05). At each level of athletics, those students categorized as “high team identity” reported higher perceptions of external prestige for their university than those students with less team identity.
Conclusions Results suggest that, even where athletics is lower in profile and prestige, students identifying with these teams experience an impact on their view of the overall institution.
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